Golda For Prime Minister? [Important Links At The End]

When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel, Rav Soloveitchik was asked if it is permitted based on the Rambam who says that women may not be appointed to public positions of leadership. He answered "And to elect Ben Gurion wasn't a question? He was anti religious and it was forbidden to elect him as well. The answer is - they never asked us and we have no responsibility for their appointments".


[Nefesh HaRav Page 90]


In the Israeli government there is a rabidly anti Torah figure named Yair Lapid who leads a major party. In his party, he also has two people who wear kippahs and call themselves "Rabbi", one of them a graduate of Ner Yisrael. The latter went on a tour of North America some time ago explaining why it is so good for Torah and Yiddishkeit that Lapid is in power. It is all in the Rambam! The Rambam says that you must work and charedim don't work. So Lapid, by cutting off funding to charedi families and yeshivos is the only one truly bringing about a fulfillment of the words of  Rambam. What a tzadik! [Don't ask the impoverished charedi families what they think].


The Rambam also says that it is a mitzva to serve in the army so by forcibly constripting tens of thousands of charedim into the army, Lapid will bring about a fulfillment of the great mitzva to serve in the army.


It is a mitzva to learn secular studies, so by making government funding of religious schools dependent upon following a government designed curriculum, Lapid was bringing to a greater appreciation of Yad Hashem in nature and allowing charedim to ultimately fulfill the great mitzva of supporting their families.


The upshot of all of this is that it is NOT Rav Chaim Kniyevsky and Rav Shteinmen who are really following the Torah but this character together with the mechalel-shabbos-ocheil-neveilos-mumar-lichol-hatorah-koola Lapid. That was his incredible claim.


What troubled me was not his stupidity [some would call it רשעות] in ignoring all of the Gdolei Torah and the entire olam Hatorah but that he received a very sympathetic ear from the Anglo-Saxon community including invitations to speak in various shuls.


It must be clear: There is a mesorah and the way it works is that we have big people who are filled with Torah and Yiras Shomayim and they decide what the halacha is in any given situation. Taking random quotes from earlier sources when the conclusions contradict the rulings of the Gedolim is a spiritually fatal error which many people make on a whole slew of issues.


One random example: Since the birth of the State of Israel, there has not been one serious Rov who has allowed women to serve in the army. Yet, an analysis of earlier sources indicate that women do serve in the army. So a certain sector of religious Jews, with no rabinnic heter, encourages their daughters to serve. I once asked a women how she, with her head covered, can ignore all chachmei yisrael? She told me that she learned the sources and concluded that it is a mitzva to serve. Meaning, rabbonim no longer decide halacha. Everybody can decide any question. That is not only foolish but dangerous. In the OU magazine Jewish Action there was once an article celebrating a certain religious female soldier. It was hard, she explained. Everybody in my environment was against it - Rabbis, teachers, family etc. But I persevered and enlisted anyway. What a heroine! She ignores psak halacha and follows her own will:-)!


Sweetest friends! For 3,300 years talmidei chachomim have been deciding how to apply halacha to the given circumstances. How sad to see how many perversions of this principal we see today. Being a principal of a day school doesn't make one a posek. It makes one an administrator:-). People have to know their place. I feel that it is chutzpah to publicly flout Torah authority and pave new ways of religious behavior. The term we have for this is "reform". That is a growing phenomenon in the Orthodox communities both in Israel and America.


I thank my beloved friend R' Jonah Steinmentz for sending me this EXCELLENT article of Rav Schachter on "Partnership Minyanim" and an explanation of the importance of following the chachmei hamesorah, here. An article in English on these minyanim here.